Thursday, March 20, 2008

Things are going totally awesome here in the MTC, at least for the most part... We got another teaching experience last Friday where we tried teaching in a threesome setting. That had its own kind of problems! But it went great and we felt the spirit.

Saturday was LONG... as usual... lots of class and such. We did go to the Referral center and took calls. It was Saturday morning and the church played the Finding Faith in Christ commercial and we got a bunch of people calling in. One woman called in, and I found out that she is a staunch Christian, who always had good experience doing community service with the Mormons. She called in because she just wanted another video about Jesus, whom she loved and decorates her house with. After talking with her for 20 minutes, not only did she get the video, but a Book of Mormon, Testaments, and a pair of missionaries to deliver it! I felt so good about her I hope the missionaries in her area can teach her about the gospel.

Sunday was cool! We had none other than Sheri L. Dew (former counselor in the General Relief Society presidency and the president of Deseret Book) come for a fireside! She gave a great talk about influence and how we can influence those around us... whether we want to or not. She ended her talk by showing signs that were placed outside of other churches. One of which said, "Don't pray about the Book of Mormon! That's how they get you!!!"

LOL

Okay, Monday.... lots of fun.... studying in the classroom till your eyes start to bleed is LOADS of fun!

Tuesday was Devotional Day! In the morning we had a Large Group meeting about using the Book of Mormon and getting our investigators to pray about it. Then later that evening we had a devotional from an excellent speaker, where he came and talked to us about sacrifice. He gave one story about a man who loved to play the Violin. He loved it so much he got a job as a member of an orchestra. Then, he was asked to serve a mission. He went to his mother, a widowed farmer, and told her about the financial requirements of the mission. They had very little money, and his mother told him that the family had one thing they could sell that would get enough money to pay for the mission.

The violin.

The boy wrote in his journal a few weeks later, "I pulled out my violin and began to play. I played all day, playing every song I loved several times. When the evening came and the desire to play waned, I cleaned off the violin and put it gently into its case. Tomorrow, I leave for my mission."

He then taught us about sacrifices and how sacrifice is to give up something good for something better. That same boy, many years later, wrote in his journal.

"The greatest decision I ever made in my life is to give up something I dearly loved to the god I loved even more."

That hit me really hard and I knew that that is why I left you guys. That is why we all leave our families, lives, girlfriends, and everything we love to do to serve the lord.

Whew, that was a great experience.

Wednesday: Class... ALL DAY! No breaks except dinner.... oy vey.

So that’s the week this week.

AND NOW FOR THE NEWS BROADCAST!

I found out I might be leaving next week! My mission president in FLA called my teacher asking if we would be ready to go ASAP, as in next week.... I should find out in the next few days... I’ll keep you informed.

Easter is around the corner. Letters and cards are forthcoming. Sorry if they don’t arrive on time, the earliest I’m allowed to send them is tonight/tomorrow morning.... but oh well.

Hope you guys are doing great! Send me some mail, keep me informed. I like to know what’s going on in the outside world!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Things are going great here in the Monestary of Total Concentration! (MTC haha lol)

The day to day things are getting a bit monotonous now that im in the routine of things. I'm steadily learning more about the gospel and about ASL and things are chugging along great. The cabin fever is starting to set in a bit. we spend upward of 12 hours a day in the same room, in the same seats, looking at the same people..... ARG! I CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!!!

Florida seems so far away at this point as i still have 6 more weeks to go.... no wait... that means that 3 weeks have passed already? por que? I TAKE THAT BACK TIME IS PASSING TOO QUICKLY!!! arrg. I hate how time can be slower than molasses and faster than light all at the same time...

AND NOW FOR THE NEWS!!!! (doo doo dee doo doo doo dee deeeee!)

Leadership in the district changed around a bit. Our Zone Leaders leave for Romania this week so they got released and Elder Gold, or District Leader got promoted in his stead. My companion, Elder Grow, is now taking over as District Leader. Upshot of this is that I get to go and get mail and get your wonderful letters that much faster.... but wait.... i havent gotten any mail..... bummer..... *sob*

j/k I love you guys and I know everyone is busy.

and now for the weather.....

COLD!!!! FREAKING COLD!!!!!!!!!! ARG! VEGAS HAS TURNED ME INTO THE BIGGEST WEATHER WIMP! ARG! But it has gotten better of late and has warmed up enough to melt the snow.

Thanks for the shirts and garments mom and dad. they were needed. as of right now im bleaching the sweat marks out of the sleeves and collar of the 2 I already brought. white is the WORST color to keep clean....

By the way, Provo Temple food is AMAZING!!!! You simply have NOT lived unil you've tried the Belgian Waffles. It's probably the best part about P-day hands down!

The 6 pounds I've gained since I got here disagrees with me though...

but that enough about me. whats going on in the outside world? whos winning the elections? did anyone accomplish anything? Whats going on with Sarah and Zak? (sorry sarah, I need to know)

Thanks for all the support guys, I love you all and look forward everyday to mailtime and your LETTERS!!!!!! at least the days that they come anyway...

Reporting from the laundry room in the basement of 1M at the Prove MTC,

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the letters, But as it turns out reading emails is a bit difficult as most email either came in garbled or without the pictures. So if you want to send me stuff, either use DEARELDER.COM or send it in the post. Thanks!

So anyway, Week 2! I can’t believe 2 weeks have already passed! It feels like I arrived here just yesterday... I had my first teaching experiences this week in two ways. First, on Friday, we went to the TRC (Teaching Resource Center), where I found out that a few deaf people had volunteered to be mock investigators... we were supposed to do the first session in English but guess what? I got to teach not one, not two, but FIVE totally deaf and COMPLETELY ASL people right out of the gate.... HECTIC!!!! It’s okay though I think I did pretty well.

The next teaching experience we got is to work in the RC (Referral Center). That’s cool because we got to work the Chat lines that people can access from mormon.org. It was pretty cool; I got to answer questions about the gospel from real people who want real answers. But... like all good things, there has to be someone to spoil the party. I had one person log on and spent the next 20 minutes slamming Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We hung up on him when we decided that he wasn't going to listen anyway.

What else happened this week? (20:50 left eek!)

Oh! Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the quorum of 12 Apostles came to speak to us here at the MTC! It was totally awesome! He spoke on how to be the missionary that our family expects us to be and some really great things about the atonement of Jesus Christ. One really interesting thing he said was right at the beginning when he said, referring to us missionaries, "I love you, I honor you, I envy you, and DANG IT, I'm PROUD OF YOU!" *Slams podium making an audible CRACK in the wood*

While that was kind of funny to see an apostle break the podium, it had an interesting amount of significance for me.

About 8 months ago the same person, Elder Holland, came to our town and spoke at our stake conference. While he was there he gave our stake a "stake blessing" or a blessing on us as if he could give one to us all individually. The only thing I remember about it though was one statement where he blessed us to be, "everything we are destined to be." It was then I decided that what I was destined to be was a missionary and that was when I started getting things in order to be a missionary.

Then, no less than 2 weeks after I get here, I hear Elder Holland say those words that he was proud of me. When I heard them the spirit hit me so unbelievably strong that I knew, without a doubt, that THAT is what I was meant to hear. That what I’m doing is something the Lord is proud of. It helped me out so much. *wipes away tear*

Who ever knew that simply bearing your testimony would be so powerful? It seems now that I can’t even think about my testimony without being filled with the spirit so much that I just start crying... I LOVE IT!

Anyway, I'm running out of time so I’m going to close this letter. Thanks everyone for your support and thanks for all the correspondence. Remember to read Proverbs 25:25

“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”

I get 30 minutes a week to use email here in the MTC so this letter will be a bit short. I will have handwritten letter to everyone out sometime today, but since I only have a few addresses ill send most of them Home to be distributed from there. If you want a letter from me directly, send me one! Then I get your Address. Also, Dearelder.com works too for sending me letters while I am in the MTC. They offer free same-day delivery to the MTC and it’ll even attach your address so I can reply! How cool is that!

First week in the MTC! Yikes that was fast. Wednesday when I got here one of the speakers said that the days will feel long, but the weeks will feel too short. AND HE WAS RIGHT! These have been probably the longest days of my life thus far. Every moment is not only timed out, but planned as to exactly what I am going to study when. It helps a lot really since I have no idea where to begin! My companions are cool, and I’m in a threesome! First one (guy on my right ATM) is Elder Grow, he’s from Southern California and he is going to the New York, New York South mission speaking ASL. He a TOTAL basketball nut and it drives me crazy sometimes (being a Baseball man myself), but I love him. The other (on my left) is Elder Frost. He’s from Cleveland Ohio and is going to The New York, New York North mission speaking ASL. He’s deaf but he has cochlear implants so he can hear. He actually came knowing no ASL at all!

Hoo boy this time limit drops fast! I’ll have to leave the rest of the stories I can't tell here to mail letters and the videos I’m sending home today. Dad, you should be able to post the videos on YouTube easily enough and embed them onto the blog. I go into much more detail there as I’m using video recordings to make up my mission journal since I have no writing skills and I can barely read my own handwriting.

TEACHERS:

I have 2 Deaf teachers and 2 Hearing teachers. The two deaf ones are Brother Montgomery and Brother Featherstone. Bro. Montgomery is total deaf and forces us all to learn ASL quickly so we can understand him. Brother Featherstone has a cochlear implant but he yanks it out when he’s teaching. ARG IT’S FRUSTRATING! But it’s okay. He works with us and we have already learned a TON of things to sign. The 2 hearing teachers are Brother Black and Brother Cropper. Bro. Black went to NYNYSouth on his mission and LOVED it and has a ton of insights into how to teach deaf people and teach with the spirit. We’ve learned a lot from him in such a short time I couldn’t write it all down if I tried. Brother Cropper went to Houston, TX on his ASL mission and just got back from it 8 months ago, and he’s already teaching here at the MTC. He has intimate knowledge of Preach My Gospel and is helping us get the most out of PMG and even gives us some insights to like things together. GREAT teachers I love them to death!

Almost all of the studying we do here at the MTC is Missionary Directed, in that we decide what we want to learn and when we want to learn it. There is a list of things that are highly recommended we cover in detail but mainly it is left up to the elders and sisters to decide how much we want to get out of this place. It’s interesting that we learn the same way we teach, by the spirit. I’ve seen miracles here every day! We got a chance to work in the RC (referral center) and got to chat live online with people who log onto mormon.org and have questions about the church. It is great that on day 2, I got to testify of Christ to the world! I LOVE THIS PLACE!

I can feel the spirit so strongly here. It feels like I’m in the temple all the time. I know because I went to the temple to do Endowments today! That was fun and the Provo temple is beautiful. When we left the temple it was such a beautiful morning I just felt like I was in heaven itself. I wish you all could feel what I’m feeling here because it’s simple indescribable. I hope I can keep this feeling into the mission field and into the homes of those I teach!

As a measure of housekeeping (4:39 left.. EEEK!), I need addresses! Especially from Kim, Bishop Shapiro, Pres. Steadman, and anyone else who wants to get info from me! You can either e-mail them to me at tora1188@myLDSmail.net (it’s new) or just send me a letter. Send me a letter though. It’s faster and I get MAIL! Which always brightens days? I love you guys a ton and I wish you all could join me here.

One more thing, I forgot to pack pictures of people! Send me some bright smiling pictures I can stick to my wall. It’s nice to be able to look at my family and friends everyday!

Love you guys a whole ton, and I’ll write the next e-mail next Thursday!